I have thought about this and read Matthew's gospel; but only the red letter (what Jesus said).
I found one passage where Jesus mentioned his sacrifice for the remission of sins:
Matthew 26:28. Which could be interpreted many ways based upon that one line of text.
Let's see > Matthew 26:28 >
"'For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'" (Matthew 26:28)
Well, this fits with how we do not save our own selves. But Jesus is God's own Son, the only One who can do anything really right, and He died for us so we may be saved; so His work on the cross has saved us, not we dying for our own sins . . . simple enough, I would say.
But becoming saved does not stop with getting a clean slate. On the cross Jesus has reconciled us with God >
"For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them" > in 2 Corinthians 5:19.
So, we see how Jesus died for us, shedding His blood so our sins may be forgiven. And this depended on who and how Jesus is, not on how we have been and our ability. This was done before we of this time . . . the 21st century . . . were born in sin! So, we have been saved by Jesus . . . by means of His grace through faith.
I know that Paul further went into the theme of salvation through grace (why should i trust Pauls teaching), but if we were to go purely off of just Marks gospel, then could it not fairly be argued that Jesus teaches that we are saved by works rather than grace just like every other religion?
It is clear that Jesus did not have us do the work of dying and suffering for our own sins. And Paul says it is not works we have done. So, there is no disagreement. And Paul helps us get more out of all Jesus
means by what He did and said while He was on this earth.
In Paul's message quoted above, I see something. Yes, God in Christ was working so we have our sins forgiven. But, with this needs to come reconciliation, not only forgiveness. I understand that reconciliation goes beyond simply getting pardoned for wrong deeds. There is a change of our relationship with God, in reconciliation.
And this change is not only in our standing and position with God, but there is change of how we are personally relating. Yes, we have become adopted to be God's children; so indeed our standing and position with God has changed, in becoming reconciled. But a child has active relating with Mommy and Daddy and with the child's brothers and sisters. So, our reconciliation has brought us into our very different way of relating with God on an ongoing basis. This includes how every child of God is
"called in body" to constantly submit to God in His peace > Colossians 3:15; this is in our basic Christian calling, how we personally relate with God in His own peace, and discover how He rules each of us in our hearts. And I can give you various scriptures to show this of Paul's writing fits with things Jesus did and said. But now I wish to talk about reconciliation with God has changed our relating with Him >
We were living in sin, relating with God by going against Him, by not being in His love sharing personally with Him. We were not personally submitting to Him and His guiding in His peace. And how was God relating with us, each of us personally while we lived in sin? >
"God resists the proud" > in James 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 5:5.
So, I see now, God was very personally relating and communicating with every one of us while we were not His children: by means of His personal resistance. And this was very caring, because His resistance helped to keep us from getting into as much pain and trouble and tragedy as we could have, while living in Satan's kingdom. All the horribleness of this evil world now is just a glimpse of how things could be if it were not for God's resistance. And so I can see how it is theo-
logical that God would have Paul tell us to give thanks to God, in any situation >
"in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
We thank Him for keeping a lid on evil, and even using it for His good, somehow. Plus, in our relating with God, we thank Him for how He is caring for us who are in submission to Him >
God
"gives grace to the humble." (in James 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 5:5)
Now, back to being first reconciled > we have changed from being in a run-in with God's resistance; and we
"first trusted in Christ" > in Ephesians 1:12.
So, in our becoming reconciled in order to get saved, we began by trusting in Jesus. And do you think trusting is very personal? Is there personal relating and communication included in coming to trust in someone? However, it may be that as a sinner you never came to trust in any human, at all. But you might have been so busy with trying to use certain people for what you wanted; you trusted people only so you could use them, perhaps; so in some way we were not really loving people, but we were in love with what we hoped to use them to get. You could have had a closer and more trusting intimacy with a pet, but that came only with how you could control the pet, right? With Jesus, we need to trust Him with all the control . . . how He rules us in His peace. Jesus is our Lord of all; and we benefit from His ruling control the best, by how He rules us in His own peace which He shares with us > John 14:27. And Paul agrees with this, by telling us to be ruled by God's peace > Colossians 3:15.
So, we needed how God changed us and taught us and deeply corrected us, so we could discover how to trust in Jesus, and then continue relating with Him in growing trust . . . needing this, all the time > as Jesus says,
"'Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'" (Matthew 11:29)
A
"yoke" has an ox in constant connection and relating with the person who is caring for and using and guiding the ox. And, by the way, the whip they use, I have read, is not for smacking the ox in order to drive it, but the whip is used for contacting the ox in the certain that the ox is trained to respond for each type of contact . . . and this along with voice commands. I think, then, they do not just crack the whip in the air or on the ox's skin; the ox actually has very sensitive skin so slight touching is enough.
And note how Jesus says His is
"gentle and lowly in heart". So, I see He means we need to become gentle and humble and quiet so we can be sensitive to how He constantly shares with us and personally guides us in His kind and gentle and humble caring and sharing family love.
Jesus is God's Son; God is our Father; so God is about family; so we learn and obey Jesus as family, not as individual isolated robots of our own control with artificial intelligence! In Satan's kingdom we were love-dead puppets, but very conscious in his horrible things of hate and lusts and frustration and worry and unforgiveness and bitterness and desperation for pleasure to make us feel something nicer . . . very lonely, indeed, not able to personally and sensitively share as family.
So, our reconciliation brought us out of that awful way of living and relating, and we have actually become family with God and one another who have trusted in Christ.
Grace so changes a person to be with Jesus >
"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." (1 Corinthians 6:17)
And grace changes a person so we are able to be submissive to God in His own peace. Then we can do the works which God in us rules us to do in sharing with Him - - -
works done in sharing with Him in His own peace >
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)
And this feeds with how Jesus says to submit to Him in His
"yoke" so we have
"rest for your souls." And James says,
"Therefore submit to God," in James 4:7.
So, I am showing you, by the way, how Jesus and Paul and James are saying the same thing. This is only one example of how all our New Testament writers
mean the same thing. But there are people who are using God's words to play a game of intellectual word chess in which they come up with all sorts of different meanings and rules for their pieces, and in the process they play people's attention away from being reconciled into personal intimacy and sharing and relating with God and one another as His family. And ones are not ministering for people to be
"conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (in Romans 8:29) Their attention is elsewhere.
But you can see that the basic objective of Jesus is to save us so we can become and love like Jesus . . . like Paul says is the focus of his ministry > Colossians 1:28-29. After all, what is the first thing Jesus talked about, in His Sermon on the Mount?
How to become like Jesus >
poor in spirit
meek
merciful
pure in heart
And then He goes into how to relate with God and people. So, Jesus and Paul and James and Peter and John all have been ministering this. So, don't let word game people take your attention elsewhere. And discover sharing with mature Christian people who help you with this.